1
general::
Phrase(s): live on borrowed time
Fig. to exist only because of good fortune; to live on when death was expected. • The doctors told him he was living on borrowed time. • You are living on borrowed time, so make the best of it.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
2
general::
see ON BORROWED TIME., Outlive reasonable expectations, as in Our twenty-year-old car is living on borrowed time, or The vet said our dog is living on borrowed time. This expression alludes to time borrowed from death. [Late 1800s]
American Heritage Idioms